Grid-Tied Renewable Energy

The most common type of solar installation is a grid tied system. This means that the solar system is connected to the customer’s side of the utility grid and there are no batteries. The utility grid is the back-up power supply when it is dark at night. When solar energy production exceeds the homes consumption, then the energy in kilowatt hours (kWh) is sold back to the utility and the homeowner receives a credit. During daylight hours, the home will always use the energy that’s produced from the solar system first, and the utility will supply the home with power when the energy consumption exceeds solar production.

At Ohio Power Solutions, we will professionally design a high quality grid tied solar system for your home, business, or farm. During the free site assessment, we analyze the utility bills and design a highly efficient solar system based on your monthly kWh usage. Our goal is to ensure that the home or building is maximizing the kWh’s generated from the solar system to maximize energy savings at the full kWh rate. The customer will receive a credit from the utility company for any kWh sent back onto the grid at the generation rate which is typically about 50% of the full kWh rate.

At a high level, the solar panels produce DC electricity from the sunlight, then the DC current travels to an inverter and the inverter converts the DC into AC electricity. The AC electricity will then travel into the buildings service panel where the point of connection is with the customer’s electrical system. There are two types of inverter technologies (String Inverters / DC Optimizers and AC Micro Inverters).

String Inverters & Solar Edge DC Optimizers

String inverters have been around the longest. A string inverter may also be known as a central inverter in large scale systems. A specific number of panels are connected in series and multiple strings or circuits of the panels in series will feed one string inverter. String inverter systems are very cost-effective and reliable. 90% of the Solar PV systems we install now utilize the DC optimizer technology which connects into a Solar Edge string inverter. DC optimizer’s allow each solar module to perform to it’s highest capability without shade impacts on other modules in that string. Solar Edge DC optimizers also have a very simple to use & awesome monitoring program for your PC or smart phone. This will allow us to see the performance of each solar module as well as provide us with daily, monthly, & annual energy generation data.

AC Micro Inverters

The second technology is known as micro inverters. Every panel will connect into its own micro inverter and then AC electricity will be leaving the solar array to the customer’s electrical system for the point of connection. Micro inverters are normally used when there is intermittent shading over the solar array. Micro inverters cost a little more, but can make more sense in certain situations. Micro-inverter systems also have a very nice monitoring program that allows us to see the performance of each solar module & provide energy generation data.